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Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Caught by Air by Delwyn Jenkins Guest Post & Bookreview

About Delwyn Jenkins

I like radical career changes. After serving in the Australian Navy for ten years (and being exceptionally disciplined) I switched to full-time university Arts student (where getting out of bed before 11am proved traumatic). I’ve worked as a teacher, an editor, and now write full time – a career I plan to stick with for as long as anyone wants to read my stories.

I’m an avid reader and movie-goer, an average bellydancer, and a disinterested cook. I live on the beautiful south-east coast of Australia where the changeable weather suits my mercurial nature.

Witches and Knights and Magic – oh my! The insiders guide to the Watchtower Chronicles.

By Delwyn Jenkins

I’m often asked how I got the idea for this series, and there are several answers.

I’m interested in the old religions, what some people call Wicca. So many of the rules and traditions resonate with me, and the underlying philosophies align with much of what I already believe.

‘Do what ye will, but harm ye none’ is a great way to live. And the three-fold rule (what you give out comes back three times over) is a good way to make sure you always act with love and respect. So many paranormal romances give witches a bad rep – I wanted to do something that put a truer, more positive light on those beliefs.

Then, of course, I had to dress it up and make it interesting….

I started with the idea of the world between. In the old traditions, there are three worlds – below (where we live, work and play); above, which is the realm of divine beings (god and goddesses, guardians, angels and so on); and between. The world between is created when a circle is cast, sanctifying and protecting the space. The circle elevates those in it to the world between, a place where the mortals of the world below may commune with the divine beings in the world above.

It all sounds very woo woo, I know, but I’ve been in a lot of circles and when the circle is closed the power becomes a visceral experience. It’s something that has to be experienced to be believed.

So…I had the idea of the world between. But what would it look like? Who would populate it? What is its purpose? What are the laws (both secular and spiritual) that hold it all together. This is where I really had to get my thinking cap on.

Populating it with Witches was a no-brainer, but what kind and who? The idea of elemental magic seemed pretty obvious. Most Wiccan rituals combine or call on the elements of earth, air, fire and water. All I had to do was work out how those elements would manifest in my story. Enter Kamryn, Mycah, Charlotte and Amelia; my witches of fire, earth, water and air.

I’ve lived away from home my entire adult life, so I’ve had to create a family of choice in the varies places I’ve lived. It was important to make my four heroines family, for them to truly love each other as sisters (for better and worse). I’m blessed to have a very close relationship with my own sister, but that’s not the case for everyone. I think it’s important to have sisters, whether they are by blood or by choice. I like to think of my chosen sisters as ‘soul sisters’ – and that’s what I tried to tap into through my books. Those girls may not always get each other, but they love each other no matter what. (And we all could do with more of that).

So…I had the place, and a heroine and element for each book. All I needed now was some literary testosterone. Enter the Watchtower Knights.

I spent ten years in the Navy and I’m a sucker for an alpha male. My heroes were always going to be warriors (it seem they’re only kind I know how to write!). But it wasn’t enough for them to have physical strength – I wanted them to have emotional strength as well. So many romance novel alphas are ‘me Tarzan, you Jane’. Too many of them have a swath of one and done, faceless, broken-hearted women in their wake. I love alphas but I don’t love misogynists, so it was important to me that my heroes liked and respected women. I guess they are my ideal in a lot of ways – physically and emotionally strong, respectful, happy to hold their women close when required while understanding a woman’s need to make her own choices and fight her own battles.

And that’s how I created the foundations of my stories:

A fire Witch terrified of losing control of her gift, and the hedonistic Knight who was willing to risk everything to get his hands on her.

An earth Witch recovering from sexual assault, and a Knight willing to be as patient as he needed to be in order to make her his.

A virgin water Witch with family issues and the Knight so in love with women has was called the Seducer. (Author note: at the beginning of the series I thought it would be funny to put the virgin and the man-whore together. Yeah, never doing that again. It was so hard to write!)

An air Witch who kept her affairs casual and her friendship platonic, paired with a Knight who’d spent his life putting duty first and couldn’t see how a relationship would ever work.

I loved writing the Watchtower Chronicles, and I’m sad to leave the series behind (for now, at least). For those of you who feel inclined to look at my stories, I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

A big thanks to With Love For Books for hosting me (and for their much appreciated support).

Amelia is the Air witch in her Quatre. All of her sisters have completed a ritual with their Watchtower Knight. With this ancient ritual they've increased their powers. Amelia has to do the ritual as well if she wants to maintain the balance of her Quatre. They have to be very strong to defeat Malleus. He is as evil as they come and he has to be stopped before he finds his way to the human world.

Amelia is gorgeous and works as a model. When she was younger she got burned by what she thought was love. She hasn't let anyone in ever since. Sure she had lovers, but she didn't have an emotional connection with them. Amelia wants to ask Dane to be her companion for the ritual. If she wants it to succeed she has to be intimate with her knight and connect on all levels. Amelia is terrified to let someone come close again, but for the sake of her Quatre she has no other choice.

Dane is the captain of his cohort. He is gorgeous, honorable and badass all in one. Dane feels the attraction to Amelia, but he has accepted that he will never be a part of her world. His cohort is all that counts and to be the captain they need he has to put them first. He loves the Quatre with all his heart and will do anything he can to keep them safe.

When Amelia asks Dane to be her knight in the ritual he can't believe that she actually chose him. Before he can give himself to Amelia fully she needs to understand that she will get all of him. They both can't deny the obvious attraction and after the blessing of the Lord and the Lady love has bound them together. Will Malleus be able to break their connection? Or will he fail again?

Caught by Air is the fourth book in the Watchtower Series. Even though I have loved this series since the very first book Called by Fire I must say that I loved the story of Amelia and Dane the most. Amelia is strong, feisty and she doesn't back down without a fight. She will always be there for the ones she loves. I think her character really completes the Quatre. Dane is the most honorable man alive. He is an amazing captain of the Watchtower Knights, but Amelia makes him weak in the knees. I definitely enjoyed reading about these strong and capable knights who have so much honor and love for their witches. They truly are the best combination for any female.

Delwyn Jenkins has written an amazing series that will absolutely be in my top ten of all time favorites. She makes all of her books memorable from the start. Her stories are fast-paced with many unexpected twists and turns. The ending is great and the series kept me on the edge of my seat until the very last battle. I think these books are worthy of being made into movies. I would be sitting front row at all four of them.